60+ drawings

2021

A bit fed up with the militaristic, elitist and hierarchical system in the business of art, I started to collect and study the awards and prizes of the art world. There are only a few artists who get most of these often very prestigious awards and if you do not win any of them in your lifetime then you are likely to be one of the forgotten ones.

There seems to be a thirst for heroes and in their honor I started to draw precious medals and badges corresponding to the prizes and awards that exist in the art world. I would love to see artists being awarded with many many medals much more often.

There are also a few real medals, mostly from Japan and the German Democratic Republic, some even included amateur artists as winners, which is a nice communist/ Beuysian touch. Ironically there is one GDR medal that says “Kunst ist Waffe” (art is weapon) on its back. But I believe today in capitalist society art awards are the real weapons as without them artists can not compete/fight. So we all hope and dream of becoming highly decorated artists one day.

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